Kansas Republican House Speaker Now Sorry For Email Praying For First Lady To Be A Widow

Mike O’Neal originally said he meant, “Let his days be few” in office — not in life — in an email he sent out. Now he’s apologized, although he says he won’t resign, as local pastors are asking him to do.

The forward contained a single verse and was only intended as election commentary regarding the president’s days in office. I have apologized, and I am sincerely sorry,” O’Neal said in an email.

O’Neal’s email sent to friends and colleagues cited part of Psalm 109:8 which in some interpretations reads: ‘Let his days be few; and let another take his office.’

The following verse reads, “May his children be orphans and his wife a widow.”

Two pastors delivered a petition signed by 30,000 people demanding that the speaker resign. O’Neal issued an apology, but his communications director said the speaker would not be resigning.

“He is using sacred scripture to flippantly suggest people should be praying for the death of the president,” said Michael Sherrard, a spokesman for Faithful America, an online interfaith community based in Washington that organized the petition.

Previously, O’Neal apologized for calling the First Lady “YoMama,” and comparing a a photo of her to the Grinch.